Telescoping door closer



p 1967 1 E. VON WEDEL 3,343,203

TELESCO'PING noon CLOSER OriginalFiled Jan. 11, 1963 s Sheets-Shet 1 INVENTOR Sept. 26, 1967 E. VON WEDEL 3,343,203

'IELESCOPING noon CLOSER Original Filed Jan. 11. 1963 3 sheets-sheet 2 mvzm-on E/wfm 4/0414! ma flaw.

ATTORNEY Sept. 26, 1967 E. VON WEDEL TELESCOPING DOOR CLOSER 3 $heets-$heet 3 Original Filed Jan. 11, 1963 INVENTOR Em rf rm 4/444,

M M Ifi ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,343,203 TELESCOPING DOOR CLOSER Ernst von Wedel, Senne, Germany, assignor to Firma Heinz Schuermann & Co., Bielefeld, Germany Continuation of application Ser. No. 250,859, Jan. 11, 1963. This application Nov. 17, 1966, Ser. No. 596,047 15 Claims. (Cl. 1667) This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 250,859, filed Ian. 11, 1963. I

The invention relates to a telescopic door closer, with a return spring and hydraulic damping and which may be built into a door wing.

Telescoping door closers known in the art are in general of such large diameter that they can not be built into the door wing but only outside of the latter. For this reason these door closers have not become as popular as known door closers employing the movement of damping pistons and a cam or crankshaft which are built into the floor under the door or are constructed with an angular rod outside of the door. In recent times there have become known telescoping door closers the diameter of which is so small that these can be effectively be built into the door wing. Known embodiments possess, however, the disadvantage of being susceptible to trouble, in that they have weak closing power and unreliable damping elements is of short duration.

The susceptibility to trouble could not be eliminated heretofore for the following reasons:

Since in invisible door closers there can not be employed a visible coupling rod between door wings and door frames, as is necessary for maximum kinematics, only the small space at the inner edge of the door frame being available for coupling the door closer piston rod to the door, while the door wing must be opened up to 180, there are present in such door closers, in particular when a rigid linking strap is employed as a coupling element, very large cross forces which act upon the piston rods and the damping pistons and which put such a strong stress on the outlet seal of the damping cylinder, on the sealing and guidance of the damping piston in this cylinder, as well as on the adjusting and flow elements, so that these wear out in a short time. Also the employment of chain-like link coupling elements has resulted in no improvement in view of the wear of the guides and related elements of the hydraulic damping, because of the ensuing cross forces, but such use has achieved only kinematic advantages.

A solution has now become known, which employs a link element chain bendable in one direction and rigid in the other. Since its radius of bending is not limited and no independent return is provided, there remains the possibility of wear and sticking or seizing at the door wing bearing surfaces, as well as buckling.

All known telescoping door closers intended for installation in door wings employ, for circulation of the damping medium at the closing stroke from one to the other side of the piston, a so-called central circulation tube which is secured in the cylinder piece and which extends through the center of the damping piston and is slidable therein. The above-mentioned cross forces acting on the piston rods and pistons, as well as the great length of such extending central circulating tubes either lead to friction losses, due to tight clearance in the pistons, to sticking or seizing of these, to a lack of durability or to untimely wear in view of friction. In both cases the closing function is adversely effected.

Should these adjustable elements be on the opposite side of the point of the doors rotation, then the length of the closer must be always adapted to the changing door width to allow accessibility of this member, which 3,343,203 Patented Sept. 26, 1967 makes serial production and warehousing difficult, without providing maximum accessibility.

The invention has for its object to-decrease the abovementioned disadvantages or to eliminate these altogether. To this end the invention is characterized by the combination of:

(a) A pressure-relieving central distributing slide valve displaceable in the piston.

(b) A coupling member of elastic and or rigid elements extending into one another, which as bendable only to one side, i.e., towards the door opening side.

(0) A piston packing member constructed as a guide packing and excess flow sleeve.

There is arranged in the pressure piston an accompanying pressure-relieving central distributing control valve which controls, in cooperation with a stop which is longitudinally displaceable and is accessable transversely of the door closer axis and which controls a three or multistage cycle of the circulation cross section for the damping fluid in dependence on the piston stroke.

According to the invention the longitudinal adjustability of the stop for the pressure relieving central control valve is eifected in the cylinder piece by means of a screw, gear, eccentric, cam drive or the like which are arranged transverse to the closer axis, with or without a return spring.

The pressure-relieving central distributing control is held in its stop position by means of a spring or the like.

The damper or circulating sections are formed by means of flattenings (reductions) in the member of the central distributing control valve which cooperates with one or more corresponding shoulders in the receiving bore of the pressure piston.

Additionally the coupling member which is secured between the door frame and the door closer in the door wing or its piston rod is constructed in such a manner that only a one-sided elastic bending toward the door opening side is possible.

According to the invention a coupling member secured for example on the closing end is provided of elastic material for example plastic material or pack-like leaf springs of rectangular, trapezoidal, half moon shaped cross-section or a combination of both of the latter. The coupling member may also be constructed of spring steel on which wire pan-like stepped jackets or Z-shaped profiled guide members extending into one another are aligned, the shoulders of which allow a certain bending in one direction and prevent it in another direction.

The coupling member can also be built in the shape of a link chain the members of which extend into one another in the form of toothed segments, in such a manner that a polygon-like shape is produced when bending to one side while bending in an opposite direction is prevented.

For packing and guiding the piston in the cylinder there is provided a gui-depacking ring with packing lip which is longitudingly displaceable on the piston which has an enlarged central portion and a thinner guide and centering groove so that the packing ring will also act as overpressure valve.

The piston neck is provided in the packing area of the packing ring with one or more flow channels which terminate before the packing edge of the piston.

Several embodiment examples of embodiment of the invention are shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross section through a door wing with a built in door closer in opened position of FIGS. la-lc are partial cross sectional views, drawn to an enlarged scale and showing the central valve in various positions;

FIG. 2 is a partial view similar toFIG. 1 and showing the door closed position;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the central distributing control valve; 7

FIG. 4 is an other embodiment of a connecting strap;

FIG. 5 is still another embodiment of a connecting strap;

FIG. 6 is yet another embodiment of a connecting strap;

FIG. 7 is enlarged detail of the means for securing the connecting strap in the fork screw at the door stop; and

FIG. 8 is an enlarged detail of the means for securing the connection strap shown in another position.

Asmay be seen in the drawings, when door wing 1 is opened in the directionof arrow 2 the piston rod 4, together with the control piston 6, is pulled out by the connecting band 3, against the action of spring 5. The damping medium which is disposed to the left of control piston 6 flows through the return valve 7 and the passage bores 8 in the centralcontrol slide or distributing valve 9 or through the passage 8' in the piston 6 to the right side of the piston.

Asthe door wing 1 is released, the piston 6 and piston rod 4 are again drawn into the hydraulic chamber by spring 5, while the return valve 7 closes.

When the return valve 7 is closed and the control slide or distributing valve 9 is held by the spring 10 in the position as shown in FIGS. 1 and la, damping fluid on the right side of the piston 6 can pass to the leftside thereof only through the passage provided between the flattened portions and 11 of member 9 and the corre sponding shoulder 14 of the piston, the annular groove 53 in the piston and the passage 54 and 19 in the latter, since the cylindrical portion 9 of the member 9 is sealingly filled in a corresponding bore of the piston 6.

When near the end of the return stroke of the piston 6, the member 9 engages with the free end of its reduced diameter portion 16 the longitudinal adjustable stop 12, it will be moved against the force of spring 10 to the position shown in FIG. lb in which the flattened portion 15 faces the shoulder 14 so that the flow passage for the damping fluid is reduced, resulting in a slow down of the movement of the piston under the influence of spring 5. During further movement of the piston 6, the member 9 is displaced to the position shown in FIG. 10 in which the flow passage is again increased so that the last part of the return stroke of piston 6 is dampened to a lesser degree.

Should the stop 12 be moved further to the left in the cylinder piece 13, then the pre-stop and its release will be advanced. Due to the kinetic energy of the door, a stronger additional pressure is achieved by adjusting the stop 12 to the left and a weaker additional pressure by its adjustment to the right.

In order thatthe length of the door closer may be kept independent of the changing width of the door wing 1, and yet have adjustment members which are always well accessible from without, the adjustment of the stop 12 is achieved by means of an angular miter gear in the form of a friction cone, screw, worm gear or cam drive. Thereby the adjusting screw 17 is disposed in an easily accessiblemanner immediately under the wall of the frame tube. It can however be made accessible, after installation, by means of a side or upper bore in the door frame. Bores 20 for securing the door closer to the door frame 1 are provided in the cylinder and piece 13 and in the intermediate piece 18. Alternatively, corresponding side screw lugs may be employed for securing the door closers in wooden doors.

The sealing of piston 6 against the cylinder tube 24 is achieved by means of seal 21 which is mounted on the neck of piston 6 in a longitudinally displaceable manner, and which is pressed against the shoulder .22 of the piston 6 (FIG. 1d) by means of spring 5. A ringshaped, spring-like, relatively thin lip 23 of seal 21, made of elastic material, provides the sealing against the cylinder tube 24. Should an excess. oil pressure unpermissible oil overpressure now result because of forceful closing of the door against the pressure action inthe space to the right of piston 6, the seal 21 will move away against the action of spring 5, from the shoulder 22 and will allow oil to flow into the piston neck through the recess 19 to the other side of piston 6. Thus the excessive stresses of the sealing and connecting members are excluded.

In order to overcome the butting of coupling member 3 against the wings 25, the shield edge 26 or the pivot bear-ing 27, as well as a buckling while closing, a predetermined minimum value of its bending radius must be maintained. At the same time it must be made certain that the coupling band 3 may basically be bent only in one direction in the. installed condition, in order that S-shaped buckling may be over-come. In all following described embodiments according to the invention, the swinging angle of the securing eye 28 of band 3 in clevisbolt 29, which is inserted in the shield edge by means of a installation shoulder 30, is limited to less than Furthermore the end piece 31 of the connecting band 3 is mounted in the securing clevis 29 not only swingably but, by means of an elongated 'hole, is also rockable (FIGS. 7 and 8). To overcome the swinging during a buckling stress in opened position, there is further provided a notch 33 in the securing clevis 29 into which pin 34 of the end piece 31 of the connecting band extends.

Four basic embodiments for the coupling band 3 capa-- band is rigidly connected at the closing end with the pis-- ton rod 4 and consists of elastic material, e.g., plastic material of a pack of leaf springs 50. This material is so arranged that there is provided a larger material structure on the ends than in the middle, so that the resistance moment is lightest about the middle of the band length 3. The cross section may be, for example, rectangular, trapezoidal, or half-moon shaped. At the shield edge end the band 3 is provided with a reinforcing shoe 35 and the already mentioned end piece 31 with a mounting shoulder 30. The varying resistance moment, with the varying cross-section, assures the creation of the desired bend with limited minimum radii.

In stretched position the predetermined cross-sections of band 3 for the main bending are disposed on the other side of the joining line of both sides of the fulcrum or securing point, so that there does not occur an opposite S-shaped buckling or perhaps a buckling directed against the normal opening bending.

In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, there are provided on a springy center web 36', guide mem-,

bers which are made of spring steel wire for tensile stress, for example cup-shaped reinforced sockets 36 (FIG. 4) or Z-shaped mating guide members 37 (FIG. 5) which extend into one another, and the shoulders of which make possible a certain bending in one direction, while preventing such bending in another direction. During the bending, the spring-like web is lengthened, whereas when straightened it becomes shorter again and thus moves the guide bodies towards one another.

According to FIG. 6 there is provided a link element chain, the link elements 38 of which extend mashing with each other, as gear segments into one another, so that, while bending, they form a fully predetermined polygonal type shape. Here, too, the bending in the other direction is prevented by the appropriate construction of the two segments.

The inventive concept presents the following advantages:

(a) All cross forces resulting from the necessary kinematic mass, and acting on the piston rods, pistons, etc., are eliminated.

(b) The buckling of the connecting band which sometimes leads to excessive cross forces acting upon the piston rods and pistons in a reverse direction is overcome.

(c) Friction losses, sticking, one-sided wear, in view of insufficient centering and lack of sealing resulting therefrom, are eliminated.

(d) The manufacture of door closers of only one length, for the commonly occurring door widths, is made possible.

(e) Maximum gliding and sealing properties between the pistons and the cylinder wall, are achieved with the simplest excess pressure valve operation during forced closing.

I claim:

1. A telescoping door closer with a return spring and hydraulic damping comprising, in combination, a substantially cylindrical door closer housing adapted for installation in a door wing; a main piston axially displaceable in one end portion of said housing; an elongated coupling member having one end secured to said main piston and another end adapted for pivotable securing to a door frame, said coupling member being deformable in direc tion transverse to its elongation; a control piston displaceable in said housing and arranged axially spaced from said main piston; a piston rod connecting said main piston to said control piston for movement therewith; abutment means at the other end of said housing; a pressure relieving distributing valve adapted to follow said pistons during displacement thereof, said pressure relieving distributing valve being actuated by contact with said abutment means to decrease the amount of damping medium flowing therethrough; and a sealing member for said control piston arranged displaceable with respect thereto for relieving over-pressure in said housing.

2. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said coupling member is constructed of elastic material.

3. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said coupling member comprises a plurality of leaf springs arranged in pack-like form.

4. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said coupling member comprises a plurality of rigid link elements extending into each other.

5. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said coupling member comprises a plurality of cup-shaped socket members extending into each other.

6. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said coupling member is constructed and arranged so as to be deformable only in one direction transverse to its elongation.

7. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 6, wherein said coupling member comprises a plurality of mating substantially Z-shaped elements extending into each other.

8. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 6, wherein said coupling member comprises a plurality of gear segments meshing with each other.

9. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said abutment means comprises a closure member fixedly connected to and closing the other end of said housing, an impact element mounted in said closure member axially displaceable with respect thereto and adapted to engage said pressure relieving distributing valve, and means cooperating with said impact element for adjusting the axial position of the latter relative to said closure member.

10. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said pressure relieving distributing valve is mounted in said control piston slidable in axial direction with respect thereto, said control piston being formed with fluid passages therethrough controlled by said pressure relieving distributing valve.

11. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 10, and including spring means cooperating with said pressure relieving distributing valve and being biased so as to yieldably maintain the latter in a first position in which flow of fluid through said flow passages is throttled only to a limited extent by said pressure relieving distributing valve, the latter being moved upon contact with said abutment means against the force of said spring means to a second position in which fiow of fluid through. said fluid passages is throttled to a greater extent than in said first position.

12. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 11, wherein said fluid passages through said control piston include an axial bore and a transverse bore communicating with said axial bore intermediate the ends of the latter, said pressure relieving distributing valve including a cylindrical member slidably guided in said axial bore and having a pair of adjacent axially displaced flattened surfaces one of which is arranged closer to the axis of said cylindrical member than the other.

13. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 12, wherein said cylindrical member has an elongated end portion of reduced diameter facing and adapted to engage with a free end thereof said abutment means, said reduced diameter portion having a length so as to extend up to said transverse bore in said control piston when the latter is in an end position thereof adjacent said abutment means.

14. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 1, wherein said control piston has an end portion having an outer peripheral surface of a diameter smaller than that of the inner surface of said housing so as to define an annular space between said surfaces, and a neck portion having a diameter smaller than said end portion, said sealing member being arranged about said neck portion axially displaceable with respect thereto and having an annular sealing lip extending into said annular space in sealing engagement with said surfaces, said sealing lip being moved out of said space during axial displacement of said sealing member relative to said control piston.

15. A telescoping door closer as defined in claim 14, wherein said end portion is formed with an annular sealing edge facing away from said abutment means, said sealing edge being engaged by said sealing member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 370,468 9/1887 Grifling 16-67 909,074 1/1909 Flynn 16-67 1,085,422 1/1914 Hills 16-78 1,115,305 10/1914 Gerard 16-52 1,326,841 12/1919 Bousquet 16-78 1,816,169 7/1931 Bommer 16-52 1,898,609 2/1933 Anderson 16-61 2,834,039 5/1958 Sasse 16-51 2,953,810 9/1960 Hall 16-52 2,996,754 8/1961 Ziegler et al. 16-52 3,024,027 3/1962 Kubiak 277-73 X 3,064,303 11/1962 Gray 16-52 3,078,499 2/1963 Gray 16-52 3,079,629 3/ 1963 Millard et al. 16-52 3,129,453 4/1964 Turner 16-52 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner. 

1. A TELESCOPING DOOR CLOSER WITH A RETURN SPRING AND HYDRAULIC DAMPING COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, A SUBSTANTIALLY CYLINDRICAL DOOR CLOSER HOUSING ADAPTED FOR INSTALLATION IN A DOOR WING; A MAIN PISTON AXIALLY DISPLACEABLE IN ONE END PORTION OF SAID HOUSING; AN ELONGATED COUPLING MEMBER HAVING ONE END SECURED TO SAID MAIN PISTON AND ANOTHER END ADAPTED FOR PIVOTABLE SECURING TO A DOOR FRAME, SAID COUPLING MEMBER BEING DEFORMABLE IN DIRECTION TRANSVERSE TO ITS ELONGATION; A CONTROL PISTON DISPLACEABLE IN SAID HOUSING AND ARRANGED AXIALLY SPACED FROM SAID MAIN PISTON; A PISTON ROD CONNECTING SAID MAIN PISTON TO SAID CONTROL PISTON FOR MOVEMENT THEREWITH; ABUTMENT MEANS AT THE OTHER END OF SAID HOUSING; A PRESSURE RELIEVING DISTRIBUTING VALVE ADAPTED TO FOLLOW SAID PISTONS DURING DISPLACEMENT THEREOF, SAID PRESSURE RELIEVING DISTRIBUTING VALVE BEING ACTUATED BY CONTACT WITH SAID ABUTMENT MEANS TO DECREASE THE AMOUNT OF DAMPING MEDIUM FLOWING THERETHROUGH; AND A SEALING MEMBER FOR SAID CONTROL PISTON ARRANGED DISPLACEABLE WITH RESPECT THERETO FOR RELIEVING OVER-PRESSURE IN SAID HOUSING. 